Korean Job Discussion Forums

[The Hammer]

What is your school's business model?

[inkoreaforgood]

hahahahaha!!!!

[yangban]

[The Hammer]

[bellum99]

Everyone talks about how bad the korean owners are, but a lot of what they do makes sense.
1: Minimum investment = immediate profit
2: Overwork and underpay the staff = more profit
3: Always more customers = service doesn't matter (easier work)
4: Never put money back into the company = more money in the pocket when the school dies.
5: Do the same thing as everyone else = proven system of generating money

Plus - Why repect the western teachers...they are lazy, uneducated, unemployable, and lastly stupid. Even the worst school gets teachers because these people are so needy that they will take anything given to them from the boss and smile. Some people will smile and eat sh*&^*.

[The Hammer]

My first school was family owned.


Product/Service:
-English classes for kids
-1 Morning mothers/ajumma class
-5 classrooms
-5 Korean teachers and one waygook (Teachers include 3 family members: the owner, her sister and brother.)
-Each class outfitted with a TV/VCR, a fan, rickety chairs, and 20 spiders.)
-Open for 9 hours a day
-One off-site kinder class every Tuesday
-2 small vans for pick up and delivery (1 driver was the owner's brother)

Pricing:
80,000 per student per month

Promotion:
-Ads (Those cloth billboard dohickys)
-Word of mouth

Place:
-Small city
-300,000 residents
-Located on a main street near a park


Notes:
-The family owned the apt where I lived.
-Our school was trashed (The kids wrote all over the desks and walls before I arrived on station).
- 400 students x 80,000/per month = 32,000,000/month = 384,000,000/year (That isn't a bad take)
- Overhead Assumptions (I'm probably way off in some cases)
6 teachers = Guesstimate 6mil
Rent = 2 mil
Utilities = 1 mil
Misc. expenses = 2.4 mil
Driver = 1 mil (generous)
Taxes = 9.6mil(I don't know the tax rate so I'll go with 30%)
Total overhead = 22 mil
Pure dope = 10 mil

Once again...
What is your school's business model?

[Ya-ta Boy]

*Hire your brother-in-law as the director because he can't find/keep a job anywhere else. The fact that he can't speak English is a plus because he can't understand the whining employees and bother you with the details.

*Allow any student to register for any class regardless of ability level. If the student drops out due to lack of improvement, blame the poor quality of teaching.

*Hire any white face that applies, but try for the physically attractive because they attract more customers. Background in education is not a relevant factor in quality of education.

Need I go on?

[Grotto]

Cram as many student into tiny classrooms as you can.

Send them at whatever time is convienient for the student, regardless of level of ability.

Do not listen to your teachers, do not improve any learning, do not treat any of your employees fairly, do not put any money back into the business.

Do try to make your teachers do much more work than their contract states, do change schedules and classes at your whim, do choose the cheapest to buy crappiest to use textbook that you can find, do treat your employees like robots and work them to death.

Koreans as individuals are fantastic people, as hogwan owners they are selfish, ignorant, rude, bully's who are only there to take as much cash out per month as they can without regards to the health of employees or any actual learning of the students.

[Real Reality]

I have to agree with inkoreaforgood, yangban, and Grotto. Of course, the other posters are correct, too. You could apply much of what was written to the Korean university's "business model."

Foreigners Give Koreans Low Marks for Ethics
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200311/kt2003111618540511990.htm

As a step toward a more competitive and world-renowned university system, Korean universities need to adhere to a moral or ethical code. Korean sentiment must no longer hold sway. It is time to eliminate irregularities and unjustness from Korean universities...
The Korea Herald July 1, 2004
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2004/07/01/200407010011.asp

According to the Samsung Group's chairman, Lee Kun-hee, to succeed globally, Korea must forgo the thought that Korea and being Korean is superior, and foreign specialists must be treated with respect. http://joongangdaily.joins.com/200206/14/200206142349223599900090109011.html

Transparency International's "Corruption Perceptions Index 2003" lists Korea 10 places lower than what it was last year, meaning the country ranked 50th.
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200310/200310080034.html

[jazblanc77]

This has to be flamebait, it just has to be!!!

Business model?!

[yangban]

My school was being held up by the business owner's wife. She paid our salaries, he never did. He suckered someone else into buying, who was too greedy for her own good. Next owner cut all expenses and actually took money I gave her for bills and spent it. We offered to help and did help her and she took this as a sign of weakness and tried to get more and more out of us. I hate them. She stiffed my husband out of 2 days pay, then tried not to pay me, that's when she got her life and health threatened. She coughed up my money. I was on a plane the next day. F#ck them.

[Dawn]

Jazblanc77's probably right, but how's this for a novel approach?

(1) Hire only qualified teachers (both Korean and foreign), and compensate them accordingly.

(2) Give them the materials needed to teach effectively -- solid curriculum (complete with teacher's manuals and supplementary materials), large resource library, educational games (and not just the perfunctory Scrabble set), English-only videos, arts and crafts materials, wireless Internet (for Internet-based activities), etc.

(3) Give them the freedom to do their jobs. Recognize that a disciplined classroom environment is foundational to successful learning, and communicate this to parents who want little Su-Min to be happy at all costs. (But don't put stick-wielding in the category of true discipline.)

(4) Group students according to ability. Don't put them in a class that's too difficult for them simply because their friends are in it or because it meets at a more convenient time. If the class that's most appropriate for them is full, put them on a waiting list. Don't succumb to the "a backside in every chair" mentality.

(5) Communicate, communicate, communicate, and expect everyone on staff to do likewise. Keep no secrets and tolerate no kingdom-building at the expense of the greater good.

[Zyzyfer]

I like how my current school is set up. They focus on TOEFL/SAT preparation for middle and high school students. There are two directors, one whom manages the business end, while the other manages the educational aspects of it. The latter director also teaches, so she has to face the same issues as the other teachers, and I've actually discussed problem students with her before and had her agree and admit that the student got such-and-such an attitude from their parents!

The academic director also teaches as well. Lots and lots of material; I have a virtual library at my desk compared to my previous two jobs, with about 15 books at my immediate disposal. The Korean staff all are fluent in English and have lived/studied overseas, except for the secretary and business director. I'm very wary about corner-cutting, but I haven't been able to catch anything dubious going on yet.

I do have a pretty hefty workload with a lot of prep time, but it's currently intensive season, so I'm willing to bet it'll get easier starting next month.

Only real problem is that the school currently has low enrollment...

[The Hammer]

[The Hammer]